ECF Finance Council Meeting 22 April 2023

[Mick Norris]

ECF website

The 2023 Finance Council meeting will take place on the afternoon of 22nd April by video conference only. The prescribed business of the meeting includes presentation by the Board of the 2023/24 budget and the determination of fees and subscriptions for 2023/24.

Other business can be included on the agenda if it is proposed by or on behalf of the Board or proposed by ‘the requisitionists’ as defined in Article 1.1 of the ECF’s Articles of Association (see below). In respect of motions to be proposed by the requisitionists, please note that —

(a) the motion should be submitted to [email protected] no later than 1.30 p.m. on Thursday 16th March; and
(b) if the motion does not relate to the financial affairs of the ECF, it can only be included on the agenda with the consent of the President or the Chief Executive.

[John Reyes]

Looking forward to this

[Paul Cooksey]

I got ready for today. Oops.

[John Reyes]

here is the Silver Rep that i sent out yesterday to all the silver members

Dear Silver Members

This email is from ECF Silver members' rep John Reyes. The ECF Finance Council meeting is on the 23rd April 2023, and we are writing to you all to see how you would like us to vote at the meeting. The silver members' fee is going to be the same as last year, but will be increased next year. The main talking point is this that will affect silver members.

Attached is a PDF discussion about this matter. I have had a look at this and my view is to keep it as no change. Why break something that is not broken. With the merger of the silver and gold, this was the council's view -

It would be difficult (although not as difficult as 1 above) to get past Council without upsetting an entire membership class; Silver members are unlikely to support changes that disadvantage them compared with other membership classes - there are not really any extra benefits we can offer that would appeal to Silver members as justifying a membership fee increase other than the ability to play in FIDE-rated congresses, which presumably many of them do not want to do (otherwise they would already be Gold members).

We hope to hear your views or ideas on this before the Finance meeting by the 22nd April 2023 and get guidance as well. I’m sorry this is late as I have been trying to get hold of my fellow rep to do a report to sent out, but he has been too busy to sort a time out with us to discuss this and I had to take the lead with this.

John Reyes - [email protected]

[Roger Lancaster]

I've just re-read the report (29 March) from the chair of the ECF Finance Committee, and implicitly on behalf of the Finance Committee as a whole, in which he expresses considerable misgivings over budgetary/financial matters. The role of the Finance Committee, as he points out, is to provide Council with an independent view of the Federation's finances so this should be a matter of some concern. Is this concern shared by others?

[John Upham]

I enquired if the Zoom meeting would be streamed via the ECFs YouTube channel.

I'll let you guess the response.

Here is a clue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0YGZPycMEU

[Roger Lancaster]

I enquired if the Zoom meeting would be streamed via the ECFs YouTube channel.

I'll let you guess the response.

Invites have certainly been extended to the Zoom meeting but presumably (and I stand to be corrected if wrong) only to Council members.

[Angus French]

I enquired if the Zoom meeting would be streamed via the ECFs YouTube channel.

I'll let you guess the response.

Here is a clue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0YGZPycMEU

As I'm sure you know - as one of those pressing for it - a motion was put to last year's Finance Council meeting that future Council meetings be live streamed. The motion was not successful.

[John Reyes]

I enquired if the Zoom meeting would be streamed via the ECFs YouTube channel.

I'll let you guess the response.

Here is a clue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0YGZPycMEU

As I'm sure you know - as one of those pressing for it - a motion was put to last year's Finance Council meeting that future Council meetings be live streamed. The motion was not successful.

John Upton if you was at the meeting, you know why, or you can asked one of your friends the reason.
The Meeting is only open for the people on the list.

Why do you want the Meeting to be put on youtube? also would you be happy to cover the cost for it?

[Kevin Thurlow]

"The role of the Finance Committee, as he points out, is to provide Council with an independent view of the Federation's finances so this should be a matter of some concern. Is this concern shared by others?"

Yes, as always.

[Roger Lancaster]

"The role of the Finance Committee, as he points out, is to provide Council with an independent view of the Federation's finances so this should be a matter of some concern. Is this concern shared by others?"

Nick Faulks' report is quite a lengthy one, and those interested will probably have read it without my reproducing it here, but one point he makes is that it's not until now that Council has been able to see audited ECF accounts for the year ended 31 August 2021. That shows a surplus of c£47k, which is fine, although half of it looks to be swallowed up by the projected deficit in 2021-22, but the point is that the audited figure is well out of date - it relates to a period which ended 20 months ago.

Everyone has faith, as far as I can see, in Adam Ashton as Finance Director but ideally the Finance Committee, in expressing its view, shouldn't have to rely on faith. The situation seems to be that it can take anything up to 12 months to complete the audit - I'm not going to comment on this because I'm unaware of the complexity of ECF finances - but in that case Nick appears reasonably to suggest that a change of financial year-end would mean that the 20-month delay could be reduced to something like 12 months, meaning that the Finance Committee could give a better-informed opinion.

[NickFaulks]

Why do you want the Meeting to be put on youtube? also would you be happy to cover the cost for it?

I believe the cost, if any, would be small and I would be happy to cover it. That is not the reason why the idea was rejected.

[Roger Lancaster]

It's a small detail but the Finance Director's report on 2021-22 includes "We have an unaudited loss of £24,157 against a budgeted loss of £36,001" while the accompanying spreadsheet appears to show a budgeted loss of £57,296.

[Adam Ashton]

It's a small detail but the Finance Director's report on 2021-22 includes "We have an unaudited loss of £24,157 against a budgeted loss of £36,001" while the accompanying spreadsheet appears to show a budgeted loss of £57,296.

Hi Roger, yes that looks odd, apologies. The £36,001 is a reference to the revised forecast for 21-22 ahead of last year's Finance Council meeting, not the original 21-22 budget. I'll update the report later this afternoon to make that clear.

[Roger Lancaster]

No problem, Adam, I'll leave you to have a quiet word with your proofreader. ECF rules being what they are, there's a limit to what you can say on this forum but the separate point which occurred to me is whether it should really take 12+ months to complete the audit. If it does then it does but I've got to say I'm mildly surprised - and, of course, if it could be done within 6 months that would remove any issue of FYE changes.

Another issue which stands out for me, in Nick's report, is: " ... at the last meeting, on March 2nd, I was surprised to hear the CEO inform the room that he considered Finance Committee’s work to be unsatisfactory and that he intended to schedule a meeting to discuss how it could be improved. I have no idea of how he had reached this conclusion, since he had never discussed the matter with me".

If that's an accurate record of events then, while I normally tend to agree with Mike, I'd question whether that's an appropriate course of action. The purpose of the Finance Committee is to provide an independent view to Council. [Without an independent view, one risks emulating a UK political organisation whose finances are the subject of largely uninformed speculation]. If the Finance Committee is constrained by "improvements" imposed on it by the CEO or the Board, it ceases to be independent. An independent Finance Committee might at some point properly wish to consider whether a CEO's performance could be improved (and, for the sake of clarity, I do not suggest that time is now) but the reverse is not, in my opinion, true.